- As delivered -

Mr President,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the EU and its Member States.

The Candidate Countries North Macedonia*, Montenegro^*, Albania^*, Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova and Bosnia and Herzegovina^*, the potential candidate country Georgia, as well as Andorra, align themselves with this statement.

First I want to congratulate Switzerland on assuming the presidency of the Security Council and thank you for hosting this timely debate. I also want to thank the briefers for their important contributions.

Mr President,

Today is World Press Freedom Day. Let me therefore underline the powerful link between what we are discussing today – trust and sustainable peace – and the protection of freedom of expression, as laid down in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 75 years ago. We know that peaceful, just, resilient and inclusive societies are those that are built on trust, those where people can express themselves freely and where institutions serve the people and are accountable to the people. The European Union is extremely concerned about the threats to freedom of the press today with journalists, media workers and all those who bring independent quality information to the public increasingly facing discredit, threats and attacks, including through disinformation. The Security Council and the whole UN System must engage more actively to protect journalists and media workers, as well as to prevent and condemn harassment and reprisals against civil society representatives..

Today I want to focus on the three perspectives on building trust for sustaining peace that you have outlined: 1.) first that we redouble our efforts to protect the normative frameworks of the UN, 2). second, that we enhance our tools for mediation and dialogue and ensure that they are inclusive and 3). Third, that we base our work on facts and evidence and call out those who spread disinformation.

Mr President,

The universal norms that we have all agreed on here at the UN are being attacked on a daily basis around the world. International human rights conventions are being systematically violated, including in Afghanistan, in Myanmar, in the DPRK, in Syria and in many others crises around the world. Unfortunately, we have seen that the Security Council itself has become a stage for spreading disinformation, not least by Russia in the context of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. We have also seen civil society briefers being intimidated in this Council and later punished for exercising their right to free speech. The Security Council is the primary body for protecting international peace and security and it has to embody and uphold the UN Charter, international humanitarian law and human rights. This is the responsibility of the Council members. In the same vein the Secretariat, which has the responsibility to always present the facts as they see them. The UN Charter gives the Secretary General the possibility to bring to the attention of the Council any matter, which may threaten international peace and security. Unfortunately, there are many.

Turning now to the concrete tools that the UN has at its disposal to promote peacebuilding, we know that building trust is a crucial component in all of these. The Secretary General’s Special Representatives, envoys and mediators can have real impact in resolving conflict and the UN Security Council should more systematically provide them with its unanimous backing. Strengthen tools for Dialogue, mediation and ‘good offices’ should be included in the New Agenda for Peace as means to prevent conflict.

The EU is a major supporter of conflict prevention and peacebuilding efforts. We are working around the world to enhance trust between local populations and national authorities. In Somalia, for example, we support communities, which have been liberated from Al Shabaab and suffer from their punitive actions and the drought. In the Central African Republic, EUAM CAR supported the Government in creating a reliable legal framework to thoroughly restructure the organisation of the Police and Gendarmerie and meet the needs of the Central African population (republic).  

We accompany international peace efforts in Yemen, Libya or Syria. We also support in-country civil society actors in their effort to prevent conflicts, respond to crises, and build peace. Much of our support is channelled through the UN, for example to the UN Standby Mediation Team and the UN Peacebuilding Fund.  One concrete example of operational UN-EU collaboration is Yemen, where the EU – at the request of the UN – is playing a strong coordinating role of Track II mediation and of support to the ceasefire. Another example is the EU-UNDP partnership on Insider Mediation that has enabled building and piloting critical insider mediation capacities in 14 countries. The third cycle of this partnership is presently being launched, with specific attention to the inclusion of women mentioned by many this afternoon.

Indeed, it is crucial that all such instruments are inclusive in their approach. We know that more gender-equal societies are more peaceful. Moreover, women are formidable peacebuilders and we need to support their full, equal and meaningful participation in all peacebuilding processes, not least to build trust in these processes. Similarly, we strongly support the accelerated implementation of the Youth Peace and Security agenda and the promotion of young people’s participation in peacebuilding.

Finally, Mr President, this Council and the UN more broadly, have to make use of the best data and evidence that we have to shape our decisions. The creation of the Multi-Partner Complex Risk Analytics Fund (CRAF’d), a UN multilateral financing instrument aimed at strengthening the shared capabilities to better anticipate, prevent, and respond to complex risks in fragile and conflict-affected settings, is advancing the use of data and scientific knowledge for conflict prevention and resolution. We are supporting CRAF’d and believe the analysis coming out of these new tools should feed into the Security Council’s work.

Mr President,

It seems obvious that we should always base ourselves on evidence. However, on some issues where we have plenty of evidence such as the link between climate change and security, some Security Council members are still denying the facts. Many of the countries most affected by climate change have themselves testified to the link between climate, peace and security in this Council and in the Peacebuilding Commission. It would be highly relevant for the Security Council to have a discussion based on a report from the Secretary General providing data and evidence regarding the link between climate change and security.

Upholding facts and the truth in this body is crucial to maintaining trust in the UN system as a whole and to ensure that the UN can pursue its work of building and sustaining peace. We look forward to working with the UN on how we can improve our capabilities for conflict prevention, peacebuilding and sustaining peace within the framework of the Secretary General’s New Agenda for Peace.

Thank you.

* North Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.